Production values are high, with iPad providing the best canvas yet for Level-5′s animation and colouring. And though the puzzles and narrative take on a different rhythm to the core series, the delicate balance in their concoction and the demands of their solution – requiring equal amounts of logical and lateral thought – echo those of father Layton’s finest.

The Umbrella Chronicles will inevitably attract attention for its roots above all other considerations, but it's a good game on its own terms, bringing together distinct genres and making it all work. [Jan 2008, p.86]

For some, Yakuza will feel dangerously dumb, due to its unrefined and relentless combat, but it's just as dangerous to risk overlooking its capacity to be fiercely capable and loveably playful in plenty of other ways, always aiming to provide captivating entertainment. [Oct 2006, p.84]

Area 51 is entirely without inspiration, an exercise in slick, crowd-pleasing cookie-cutter cliché from the Jerry Bruckheimer school of entertainment manufacture. It is absolutely not bad, almost never broken, and usually a good deal of fun. [July 2005, p.92]

Disjointed and directionless, Croft's descent into darkness is, shockingly, one hell of a mess. [December 2018, p.106]

Developer PAM has reinvented a game that no longer strives to be a thinking man’s alternative to Virtua, but something altogether superior. [May 2006, p.94]

Aside from the occasional hiccup with collision detection, and some uninspired boss battles, Nanostray 2 does enough to gain an honourable mention in the genre. [May 2008, p.98]

It's a game that wants to take games apart piece by piece - and is happy to use you as a screwdriver of sorts. [Issue#409, p.122]

As it stands, you can only cast your actors and dress your sets, so Unlimited doesn't quite live up to its name, but for those willing to span the game's structural deficiencies with their imagination, it's intensely rewarding.

BW2 is a strategy game that doesn't demand much strategy. That doesn't mean it's not sometimes enjoyable, but it's nothing more than an occasional diversion. [Jan 2008, p.84]

Add the odd cruelly-placed save point, and you've got an adventure that occasionally explores the agonies, as well as the ecstasies, of gaming's past. At least it's honest.

Reus is a god game, but not one that makes you feel particularly omnipotent. That’s partly because all the divine heavy lifting and occasional smiting is performed indirectly, by a set of elemental colossi, but also because Reus’ complex simulation can be rather daunting. God is in the details, it’s true, but he didn’t have to think quite so hard about them.

Give OFK half a chance, and just as their tunes will burrow into your brain, their stylishly documented journey may yet see them sneak under your skin, too. [Issue#375, p.116]

Sure, at times it's a little messy, but isn't that just part of the business of being human? Would that we could all create havoc with such irresistible style. [Issue#392, p.121]

There are too many caveats, too many pieces that have to fall into place to experience Aces at its very best. And yet a game between two evenly-matched characters and similarly-skilled human players is an unfettered joy. [Issue#322, p.122]

Capcom might not have crafted the kind of world in which players will invest, but it understands the powerful draw of party building and gear tweaking, the immediate thrills of slashing and spellcasting, and the spirit of adventure in sallying forth on a dragon hunt. [June 2012, p.106]

Crisp of cut-scene, blessed with a refreshingly light touch and low-key compared to the po-faced chest-beating of its peers, Second Sight could well be a high water mark in storytelling through games (as opposed to storytelling around them). [Oct 2004, p.104]

Intelligent Systems takes great care to shape its RPG for portable play. The world is divided into Super Mario Bros-style levels that each pack a tidy little narrative. Levelling is removed in order to keep these vignettes grind-free. And it's all wrapped up in Nintendo's typically hilarious localisation.

Balancing discipline and freedom, and showcasing creativity within constraints, it demonstrates that you can shape your own path through life, while suggesting ways you might build upon everything you learn along the way. [Issue#399, p.118]

It's simple, accessible and ultimately disposable stuff. Not the sprawling adventure you were hoping for, but fun nonetheless. [Apr 2004, p.108]

A genre piece with rare ambition, a mobile game that feels at once tailored to the format yet unusually expansive in its scope. [Issue#338, p.112]

As easy to misunderstand as it is to break, it again turns the best and worse of PC gaming into something extraordinary. [Oct 2008, p.94]

No characters stand out to give the game verve, and Dracogenics does nothing to inspire efforts to take it down. [Oct 2015, p.118]

A Disney game that finally lives up to the name.

Combined with the weight of nostalgia, Visions is thus a strangely conservative game. While not lacking the conveniences of modern design (the fast-travel system balances speed with a sense of scale), it's merely evolutionary. [Issue#402, p.112]

Its game may rarely do anything you haven't seen done better elsewhere, but the developer knots a slew of disparate elements together with no little skill, leaving the whole feeling irresistibly fresh. [March 2013, p.102]

It's easy to assume that Gyromancer is a clone of Puzzle Quest...The truth, perhaps, is that it's simply an improvement on the formula. [Jan 2010, p.98]

After the interesting and confident debut of The Suffering last year, Ties That Bind remains a straightforward action game, and one with a coherent story that feels well paced, if too full of schlocky cliché for some. But that is, ultimately, all it does: remains. [Dec 2005, p.106]